Antipsychotic Drugs May Hurt In Dementia

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

FDA Adds To Warning On Thorazine, Others
POSTED: 10:55 am EDT June 17, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration warned doctors Monday that prescribing a certain group of psychiatric drugs to seniors suffering from dementia can increase their risk of death.

Antipsychotic drugs are approved to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disease, but doctors frequently prescribe them to treat elderly patients with dementia.

FDA's announcement was an update to a 2005 action, when regulators added warnings about increased heart attacks and pneumonia to drugs called atypical antipsychotics. The medicines include blockbusters like Eli Lilly & Co.'s Zyprexa and Johnson & Johnson's Risperdal.

FDA said Monday those same risks apply to 11 older drugs known as typical antipsychotics, including Pfizer's Navane and Endo Pharmaceutical's Moban. The drugs were developed in the 1950s and have largely been replaced by the newer medications, which are believed to have fewer side effects, such as tremors.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/health/16629382/detail.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Whatever they put my mom on made her dementia much worse

First they put her on anti-depressants after my dad died. Then a few years later when she was more demented, they put her on some anti pyschotic meds and we only saw her dementia get worse.

[Warpy]

7. I never saw antipsychotics improve dementia, but that's

not why they were given. Usually, they were given to reduce violent outbursts, something that made the difference between allowing the person to be cared for at home versus being institutionalized, something that would drive most families into bankruptcy very quickly, or to protect staff and other patients in nursing homes.

Violent situations can often be defused by trained and competent people. Unfortunately, people at home don't have the training and people in nursing homes don't have the time due to short staffing.

Either chemical or physical restraints have to be used and chemical restraints, the use of antipsychotics, is generally the kinder of the two alternatives.

I haven't seen the two drugs mentioned in the OP used since the 1970s.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. My mom was on zyprexa

And I have taught far too many kids on risperodol. :scared:

[tridim]

2. It's too bad Cannabis is a schedule I substance and can't even be legally tested.

[pattmarty]

3. Hey, I'm old and I use it.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. It's what I suspect killed my mom.

When she went into the hospital with pneumonia and cracked vertabrae, she was chattering like a catbird with the rescue squad. Oriented 4X, so the EMT's said. That said, she did have a dementia diagnosis. When she finally got out of the hospital she went straight into a nursing home and never spoke another word again. She barely acknowledged another living soul. Did not recognize me. No, no stroke was marked on her charts. I asked the doctor. I did not ask about neuroleptics. Who knew?

She died several months later, after a rapid downhill track and a healthy cleanout of her meager assets by the nursing home.

[Eurobabe]

5. very sad

Sorry T_S. That is awful. Did they put her on one of those bipolar meds? My mom tried Abilify and it turned her into a zombie, and gave her tremors. She threw the stuff in the trash and told her doc she wasn't taking it. She's had a boatload of problems with meds the past 3 years. :(

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. For the life of me...

I have no idea what they put her on. My hands were full, being the only family member taking care of her and going after her charts, at the time, was hardly a priority. When they first announced this dementia/neuroleptics thing a few months ago, a bell went off in my head. I knew why she died so rapidly.

Oh, it was bad at the end, too. Her body just stopped working. Her skin was erupting in large, running fissures, she would not, then could not eat...there is yet more to all this that they have yet to announce. The effects may well be worse than they are letting on.

[enough]

6. An antipsychotic drug was and is a life-saver for my father with Alzheimer's.

Without it he would not have been able to spend the last two years of my mother's life at home with her. Before the drug, he was suffering extreme paranoia, rage and hostility, even to the point of endangering her life. With the drug he was able to live a fairly normal life at home with his family, even with his severe dementia.

He shows no side-effects and is still very healthy at 87, other than the Alzheimer's.

People often think these drugs are given for the "convenience" of the caregiver, in order to calm down difficult patients. But in my father's case, the drug was blessed relief from mental suffering. It also completely him (a life-long alcoholic) of his interest in alcohol. Within two days of starting the medication, he stopped wanting to drink.

As any Alzheimer's caregiver will tell you, different things work for different people.



By the way, an extremely valuable resource for anyone dealing with Alzheimer's:

http://alzheimers.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/frm/f/214102241

This is a DU-like forum (non-political) for people who are in the trenches of Alzheimer's caregiving. An amazing amount of experience, knowledge, and compassion is to be found there. A very open-minded group.